pert

_pert_

Adjective.

Pronunciation: pɜːt.

Etymology: aphetic form of archaic word apert (= open, manifest), maybe influenced by Old French aspert (= expert). Apert is from Latin apertus, which is the participle of the verb aperire (= to open).

Comparative form: perter. Superlative form: pertest.

1. Open, manifest, evident, not secret. 2. Beautiful, smart. 3. Expert, skilled. 4. Prompt to act; -- these uses are obsolete and pristine.

2. (Of a person) insolently unreserved; manifesting immodesty in speech and behaviour; prompt to behave immodestly, sometimes on addressing a person, without consideration of his (her) respectability.

Antonyms: reserved, modest, shy.

Synonyms: forward, immodest.

Translation: impertinemment prompt, in French; impertinentemente pronto, in Italian; impertinentemente pronto, in Spanish.

[…] all were polite and well bred, and the women were sociable and dignified, without being pert.

Thomas Knox… The oriental world

Miss Matilda was gay without being pert, and of a contented manner without being dull or indifferent

The Galaxy, vol. 17

The typist, Miss Proserpine Garnett, is a brisk little woman of about 30, […], neatly but cheaply dressed in a black merino skirt and a blouse, rather pert and quick of speech, and not very civil in her manner, but sensitive and affectionate.

George Shaw… Candida

-) With the preposition in + a noun, or a gerund, by which the immodest act is designated:

[…] she was not so forward in her questions or pert in her replies at sea as on shore.

George MacDonald… The Light Princess

We are very pert in our proclamations of this maxim. We are constantly requesting someone to mind his own business.

The Rotarian, December 1931

They are pert in throwing their lances.

Richard Brookes… The general gazetteer

-) With the preposition about + the subject:

She was as pert about other people's dress as she was nice about her own. She snubbed Fletcher, […] because his beard was too short.

George Dawson… Biographical lectures

I think she's altogether too pert about what don't concern her.

Joseph Lincoln… Cy Whittaker's Place

That's their fault. Mine, you will say, is being pert about politics when you would rather have anything else in a letter from Italy.

Frederic Kenyon… The Letters of Elizabeth Barrett

-) With the preposition to, (rarely toward, upon, with) + noun of a person addressed insolently:

[…] she arrayed him in knickerbockers and despatched him to school, with many injunctions not to play truant, or pull the hair of small girls, or be pert to his teacher.

Horace Vachell… The Soul of Susan Yellam

[A] clever lad, who foolishly became too pert to his master.

William Davis… A day in Old Roma

[…] young housekeepers whose children are rebellious, whose servants are extravagant, flaunting, over-dressed, and pert to their mistress, are not so well respected in other houses.

John Ayscough… Pages from the past

Don’t think me insolently pert upon old people.

Mrs. Chapone… Works

This made her always authoritative with her domestics, or inferiours, to keep them in awe; pert with gentlemen, by way of being genteel; and rude with ladies, to shew herself their equal.

Fanny Burney… The Wanderer

Is he [the conductor] inclined to be pert toward passengers?

Metropolitan, vol. 3

2. (Of a personal thing) manifesting pertness; made with insolent promptness; characterized by offensive unreservedness.

There was nothing pert about the child's reply; she meant it kindly, and it was so accepted by her listener.

Edward Peple… The prince Chap

Somehow Judy's words always seem more pert upon paper than they did upon her lips. Her naïveté, the twinkling light in her eyes, […], always modified greatly the expression of her words.

George MacDonald… Annals of a Quiet Neighbourhood

[…] she made a pert speech in her own defence.

Fitzgerald Molloy… The Life and adventures…

Graham [brought] a bunch of old-fashioned garden flowers, […]. He tendered them to Helen clumsily, at which the irrepressible Patsy said something pert about the kind of floral tributes Helen usually received —“long stemmed ones done up with ribbons in a fancy box.”

The Green book magazine, vol. 3

[…] I was scolded for this pert speech; but the scolding did not alter my opinion, it rather confirmed it.

The Anglo-American magazine, vol. 5

What are the forward, flippant manners of the young men of the present day, and especially their pert behaviour to ladies, in comparison with the refined, respectful, and courtly demeanour of their fathers?

William Horlock… The master of the hounds

3. (Of an animated being) brisk; --it is an archaic, and maybe abusive, use.

On one occasion a sparrow, rather perter than its fellows, advanced and made some threatening demonstration, but the waxwing darted so suddenly upon him, and used his bill to such excellent purpose that his would-be tormentor showed no disposition to renew the combat.

Zoologist: a monthly journal…, vol. 22

English words derived from Latin aperire: aperitif, aperture, aperitive, apertural, aperture, aperient, pertness, pertly.